Funeral Guide wanted to know why so many South Africans still opt for burial when there are so many practical advantages to cremation. The most compelling reason we have found for burial is that the grave site provides the family with an actual location for remembrance and ancestral worship.

This came as a surprise, because we had always accepted that the spirit leaves the body at death, and that further communication with the deceased happens on a soul level, like prayer. Lighting a candle and communicating with the deceased on one’s own, or receiving messages from our loved ones with the help of a medium or sangoma.

We discussed this and realized that cremation offers better provision regarding a location for respecting the ancestors than what burial does. Because of the pure, clean and dry nature of ash, the essential human remains are perfectly preserved and can be kept within the family living space for any length of time. Cremation gives the family more time to decide on the final resting place of the deceased and can easily be moved if the family relocates.

Same as a gravesite, many of the popular options for the storing of ashes also provide a suitable location to pay respect to the deceased. The urn containing the ashes can be enclosed in a wall of remembrance at a nearby cemetery. Ashes can also be laid to rest within an existing family burial site. A new plaque is added to the marble slab covering the grave for each newly deceased member of the family who’s ashes are included in the family burial site.

To pay tribute to the ancestors, one gravesite per person is not needed. A family grave-site containing the ashes of various members of the family holds stronger ancestral bonds than various lonely, poorly maintained graves dispersed around the countryside. Graves that are to far to visit regularly become lost in time and are eventually forgotten.

With cremation, all chosen funeral traditions and ceremonies are still respectfully carried out. The deceased can still be dressed in their best outfit and the coffin still transported to and from the funeral in a hearse. The deceased is then taken to the crematorium and the ashes are returned to the family within the week. Placing ashes in their final resting place can be done at any time and is often used as an excuse to gather close friends and family once more to comemorate the life of the deceased a year or so after the death.

Front and back views of the crematorium chapel.

We’d like to thank Geoff Gilfillan from ICSA – Independant Crematoriums of South Africa, for showing us around their crematorium with attached chapel. We learned so much and will blog more on the subject soon. Overall we were impressed by the simple clean efficiency of cremation, and for us, it looks like the way to go!